Portege R700 - the thin and light 13.3"

I agree, my statement could be taken wrong. The fan runs all the time, and the bottom left of the laptop gets hotter than say my macbook... but the temperature change & fan noise from the laptop idling to it at full cpu for 2 days straight isnt a major change.

 

It is fully usable under Linux. I would expect that over the next 6 months alot of these minor issues will be rectified too.

Good to hear my battery life is inline with Windows. I think the biggest killer of battery life for me now is the screen brightness, and having no way to control it after the laptop has been suspended once. But I will keep it updated as I hunt down fixes for these items. As soon as I have accurate battery reporting Ill be able to get some more accurate figures.

Im guessing that none of the Linux issues Ive had are also apparent in Windows? First thing that booted on my R700 was the Ubuntu installer

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R700 Linux Hardware Compatibility Thread

 

Whoa, man, what changed your mind? And here I thought you were one of the happy recent R705 converts like me!

Btw, I really loved your Civic/Asus analogy, and it seems to me the R705 is alot closer to the Mercedes AMG than the Timeline!

 

I haven't completely changed my mind yet. I think I just need to see the R705 firsthand to get a better sense of its keyboard.

The one thing that I do like about the 3280TG is that it has 2 fans: one for the CPU and GPU respectfully. That's a very nice cooling solution. And it still weighs less than 4 lbs.

 

OIC. looks like you got a good deal on it. unfortunately i'd get taxed big time if i order from newegg. so its not an option for me. Good luck and keep us posted on your experience with your new machine.

 

I went through your list again and I didn't note any similar issues using Windows 7.

 

It was the one in Carmel Mtn.

 

I'm still debating weather I should go with the i3 or the i5 model. There is about $300 difference between the two. I know that the i5 has the turbo boost and VT-d (Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O). On paper VT-d sounds really good for me since I will be doing a lot of Virtualization.

Can anyone tell me their virtualization experience with either model? Have you guys been able to utilize VT-d on this machine. I know some vendors disable this feature from their machines (not even accessible through the BIOS). Is that also the case with i5 or i7 models?

 

Did the price go up on the R705's at bestbuy?

I could of sworn it was $799 last week, it's listed at $829.99 now. Also backorderd for two weeks...

Edit: found my answer. doh.

 

For people who are interested, it is widely thought that Toshiba's bluetooth stack is mighty fine for streaming audio to bluetooth devices. I have a JVC W700BT headset breakout that is great for streaming audio across a room to a wired stereo receiver or to headphones. It was great under XP, but when I used it with my Asus ul30vt-a1 in Windows 7, it worked crap using the Windows or Widcomm bluetooth stack. But the Toshiba stack's audio capability is supposed to be on par with a2dp, which provides higher-fidelity streaming than the standard BT stereo audio. The JVC might be a pretty good solution to the headphone issues some here were having. Not sure if it will be better than the built-in headphone jack, but I'll report on it when I get my r700 up and running. If it is an improvement (over bluetooth what?) I would highly recommend the JVC. It sits in a little cradle and charges while cabling streaming audio to your home stereo, and also works great for its intended purpose as a hands-free device.

 

Thanks for the information!